Taiwanese ultramarathon runner Tommy Chen took second place in the recently concluded 250- kilometer Last Desert 2016 race in Antarctica, becoming champion of this year’s 4 Deserts Race Series with the highest accumulated score, making him the first Asian runner to complete the series in a single calendar year.
Before the Antarctica race, Chen was on top after finishing the three other races in the series and, despite having the highest accumulated score, he was leading the second- and third- placed runners by only four points and seven points. Given this modest lead, Chen still needed to stay focused for the Antarctica leg, for the slightest slip up might have seen him relinquish his pole position with highest accumulated score after this stage.
Chen was exposed to particularly daunting challenges during this Antarctica race, being troubled with a lack of sleep and hyperventilation. He became obsessed with checking his equipment, worried that something would go wrong. When he passed the finishing line, Chen howled at the heavens, expressing his relief at ending the physical and psychological ordeal he had been through over the previous few days.